Royals Part 1:Wandering Souls Arc
by BleachChancellar
Summary: A year after Ichigo defeats Juha Bach, he graduates from high school and although he takes a job as a volunteer firefighter alongside Chad, he keeps up his normal duties as a substitute soul reaper. When an accident happens during a call to put out a fire, Ichigo's life spirals into a hell only one person can drag him out of. Full summary inside, multiple arcs and parts.


**Author's Note: I'm incorporating the plot of all the stories I have in my head into this one story so I think it'll be my best one yet. This is an IchixRuki, RenxOC, ByaxOC, ShuuxRan, ToshxMomo, ShunxUki, YumixIkka and many other couples story. There will be a new summary with each Arc so this is just the first one. I hope you enjoy it! REVIEW!**

**Summary: A year after Ichigo defeats Juha Bach, he graduates from high school and although he takes a job as a volunteer firefighter alongside Chad, he keeps up his normal duties as a substitute soul reaper. When he is unable to free a young boy trapped beneath a collapsed beam in a house fire, he is forced to perform a konso on him, making him admit the defeat he felt for not saving him. He loses focus on his job and, while searching for civilians in a warehouse that caught ablaze, he finds himself in the very same situation he couldn't save the boy from.  
**

* * *

**Royals**

**Wandering Souls Arc**

**Chapter One: I've Never Seen a Diamond in The Flesh**

"Ichi-nii!" A muffled cry came from the end of the stairs leading to the '15' doorway. "Oi, Ichi-nii! Get up or you'll be late for work!" Another shout flooded the narrow hall, seeping underneath the crack in his door and invading the room behind it.

A deep groan and audible yawn accompanied a creak in the sunshine-haired teen's bed. Stretching his well rested muscles, Ichigo scratched the back of his bed head and yawned once more before lazily pulling his limbs to the cool floor and standing.

"Ichi-nii! Are you up yet?!" Another shout from his younger sister caught his ears.

"I'll be down in a minute, Yuzu!" He replied in the same tone.

"Well hurry up! Your food's getting cold!"

Ichigo pulled off his pajamas and slipped on a blue t-shirt with a white emblem that read 'Karakura Fire Dept. Volunteer Service' along with black jeans and a company jacket that also held the Fire Department Second Brigade logo on its arm and back. He messily ran his hands through his hair to straighten the orange locks before headed downstairs.

"What took you so long Ichi-nii?" Yuzu asked, spatula in hand. "I had to call for you 3 times!"

"Ah, yeah, sorry Yuzu." He apologized, taking a seat next to his raven-haired sister who had already gulped down the broth in her miso soup.

"Maybe you shouldn't have stayed out so late, Ichi-nii." Karin commented as she shot a glance at him out of the corner of her dark eyes.

Ichigo grimaced at his sister's words. "Yeah, whatever. Pass the soy sauce." He closed his eyes and scowled while shoveling down the rice placed in front of him. He instinctively ducked his head the moment he heard his father shout his name.

"IIICHIII~GOOOO!" The goat-faced ex-shinigami hurled an extended leg at his son only to land on the other side of the room with the limb lodged in the wall.

"Y-you dodged that so easily, my son!" He managed, rubbing his injured appendage. "I have nothing else to teach you!" He smiled annoyingly.

"What the hell?! I'm 18, Oyaji! Enough already!" Ichigo barked, standing from the table and heading towards the door."I'm going." He yanked an umbrella from the rack next to the door before waving nonchalantly behind him.

"Have a good day, Ichi-nii!" Yuzu chimed, smiling brightly at her older brother.

"Yeah." He returned the expression before finally taking his leave. "You too."

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**Karakura Fire Department 8:27 AM**

The quiet creak of the large metal door being forced open called forth the attention of a certain bronzed giant sitting at a round table with two other well-built young men.

"Hey Ichigo." He greeted his old friend with a smile and brief wave of his over-sized palm.

"'Sup Chad, Tetsuya, Arumaki." The orangette slipped off his thick jacket and leaned the plain, black umbrella against the rack that held all the rain gear of each employee.

"Yer early Kurosaki! What's the occasion?" The man, whom Ichigo called Arumaki, had sandy blond hair and a trademark wide, toothy grin. He had deep ocean colored eyes that peeled through the ruffled mess of a hair-do and when he spoke, it was easy to notice how childish and sarcastic he was seeing as every word that left his mouth was laced with a nefarious giggle.

"I'm not that early, am I?" Ichigo asked, looking at the hanging clock.

"Yea, you are actually. You get here at 9:30 at the earliest. So, what's the occasion?" Arumaki repeated.

"Dunno," he replied, taking a seat next to Chad. "I feel like today's gonna be a good day, ya know?"

* * *

**Karakura Fire Department 9:17 AM**

While Ichigo was polishing the large wheel cover on the side of the emergency vehicle assigned to him, Chad, Arumaki and Tetsuya were organizing the equipment inside it, attaching the hose line to its holder, adjusting the ladder and packing the Jaws-Of-Life, axes and bolt cutters in the small compartments on the sides of the truck.

Ichigo straightened up before running a blackened hand through his unruly sun-kissed locks, heaving a heavy sigh as he reveled on his masterpiece of polish work.

"All done here!" He observed, walking over to where Arumaki and Tetsuya were standing, noting how Arumaki had slumped against the side of the truck and leaving Tetsuya to do all the work. He scoffed.

"You're so lazy, Arumaki." He caught the man's attention and leaned against the barred side of the emergency vehicle.

"Hey, hey, hey!" He whined. "I don't do good with work! You know that!" He laughed when Tetsuya interjected.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have taken up this job, baka! The last time I checked, manual labor is a daily thing here." Arumaki's partner smacked the man over the head when he grumbled a few words. "Stop your whining, Arumaki! We all have to do it!"

"You guys are idiots." Ichigo laughed. He jumped slightly when he heard Chad behind him.

"We should get back to work. We'll all get yelled at if we get caught slacking." The brunette-haired giant commented.

"If anyone needs to get yelled at, it's this lump of potatoes right here!" Tetsuya noogied the younger man, much to his displeasure.

"Well, I see how strongly you feel about this, Tetsuya." Ichigo jokingly spoke in a snobby, superior voice, mimicking his boss's voice. "Just leave a message in the complaint box and we'll see what we can do about it." They all chuckled at his words.

"Attention Second Brigade! Attention Second Brigade!" The deep, muffled tone that came over the intercom caught the small team's attention. "House fire at Fukashima Street, the house isn't numbered! Seven occupants, 3 found! Arson suspected, use all tools necessary!"

"That's us!" Arumaki flew up and ran towards the lockers as did all the other members of the Second Brigade. "Looks like the kind of work I did sign up for is calling my name!" He commented, pulling up his fire resistant trousers and reaching his muscular arms through his coat.

"Yeah, yeah." Tetsuya replied, also pulling on his uniform. "This is what we all were waiting for." He, Arumaki, Ichigo and Chad suited up, piled in the emergency vehicle and headed to the home in question.

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**Fukashima Street 9:34 AM**

As the oversized vehicle pulled on to Fukashima Street, a bellowing of smoke could be seen from a distance, guiding the driver toward burning house.

"It's over there! Hurry up!" Arumaki could be heard in the backseat yelling.

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!" Tetsuya barked back.

The dusty black-haired man swerved in to the driveway, another fire truck pulling in behind them for back up when the four teammates acted simultaneously. Arumaki leapt over Chad and out to the back compartment of the truck, pulling open the cupboards and taking out essential equipment for removing and breaking down obstacles. Tetsuya, followed by Ichigo, went to the left side of the vehicle and took out fire-retardant materials and fire resistant blankets. Finally, Chad reached for the hose and in one swift movement, attached the long white tubing to the hydrant, drug it to a short distance from the burning wood and plaster and let loose the high-pressure water to combat the flames.

After the back up team gathered the members of the household that had escaped the raging blaze, they began to shout and point to the second story windows.

"Please! My children are still in there! Please, you have to save them!" Upon hearing those words, Ichigo and Tetsuya headed through the collapsed door and up the nearly destroyed steps to the second floor.

They split up at this point and while Tetsuya ran to the south side of the home, Ichigo went the opposite direction where the bedroom doors had wet towels in the cracks beneath it.

"What the hell...?" He commented before hearing a child's cry.

He burst open the door, paying no mind to the possibility of the wood around him collapsing from the force. The raging flames roared as the door slammed open. Ichigo, through the small clearing of the flames, spotted two children holding each other sobbing. They had a fixated gaze on something on the other side of the room despite the abrupt appearance Ichigo made.

He followed their eyes to find two other children, a little black-haired boy and a dark brown-haired boy, trapped beneath a beam that had sustained enough damage to fall.

"Hey, you kids!" He called out to them. "Go over to that window, and call out to the people outside! They'll help you!" He waited for their confirming nods before taking a deep breath and contemplating how he would get through the fire that blocked his way to the trapped kids. A thought popped in to his mind to just run through them. He mulled over it for a second before realizing that time was not on his side, so, without another moment to speculate, he darted through the flames.

"Go, now!" He barked at the two kids who reluctantly climbed out of the window and slid off the short roof. After seeing the last child leave, he turned his attention to the two beneath the beam.

Rushing over, he immediately tried to remove the wood plank. He placed his hands between the crying boys and attempted to lift the oversized shaft, but to no avail.

"Tetsuya! Get in here! I need you!" The orangette yelled out for his partner who arrived in the bedroom only moments later.

"Shit, Ichigo!" He also dashed past the fire that blanketed the door.

"No time to talk about how bad it is! Help me get it off them!"

"Yea!"

Both men placed their hands on either side of the boys and attempted to lift the pole again. Although it was lifted higher than before, only the little brown-haired boy was able to squeeze from under it and body-crawl the rest of the way out. The other boy, unfortunately, was a tad bit bigger than his brother and was unable to pull himself from underneath his entrapment.

"Please! Lift it higher!" He cried. "Please, help me!"

"We're tryin' kid!" Tetsuya replied, trying to raise the bar up to a height suitable for his release.

The young boy started to panic when he felt the beam lower against his back.

"I don't wanna die!" He wailed. "Please!"

"Hang on kid! We're gonna get you out!" Ichigo reassured. "Just hang on a little bit longer!"

"Where the hell is Arumaki with those axes, dammit!"

"I can't breathe! It hurts!" The little boy dug his fingernails into the wooden floor beneath him and starting coughing violently. "It hurts! Please!"

They both assured the child more help was on the way, but what Ichigo and Tetsuya didn't say was that the beam was slowly lowering on top of his back, and if Arumaki didn't arrive with the axes soon, they may not be able to remove the pole.

Arumaki, however wasn't able to reach the second floor as the steps leading to it had crumbled to ashes and debris.

He yelled up to the two men but the roaring fire muffled his voice and as it grew, he was forced to leave the almost decimated house.

"Dammit!"

"Ichigo..." Tetsuya looked over to his partner who gave him a passing, knowing and rejecting glance.

"No! Not yet!" He barked in reply. "I'm not done yet!"

Tetsuya, and Ichigo even though he didn't want to admit it, knew this was the end for the child. The support beam was a heavy obstacle that couldn't be removed without equipment, the young boy had started inhaling the soot and fumes that started choking the room and with the pole pressing on the middle of his back, what clean air that was left in his lungs slowly seeped out with each breath. He was slipping away and neither of them could save him.

"No! Hey kid! Stay with me!" Ichigo called out. He had shut his dark brown eyes and wasn't responding to his Ichigo's calls. He was dying.

"Oi, kid!"

"Ichigo..."

"Hey!"

"Ichigo...it's over..." Tetsuya lowered his side of the bar and removed his hands.

"Hey, what are you doing?! We can still save him!" Ichigo yelled at his friend. "We can still save him, dammit! Help me!" He tried to lift the shaft on his own but failing miserably.

"Ichigo, we have to get out of here...the kid's gone..." Tetsuya wrapped his blacked hand around Ichigo's bicep and began to pull him up to be met with sheer resistance.

"No! Let go, dammit!"

"We have to leave!"

"No!"

"Ichigo!"

"I won't leave him!"

"Dammit, all!" Tetsuya put Ichigo in a headlock and pulled him away for the scene that lay before them. He practically drug Ichigo to the window and pushed him to the window pane.

"We have to go!" He pushed him through the opening and off the shingled rooftop before following close after.

The two left just in time because the whole place came down moments after they crawled out the window. The woman who begged for them to save her children walked over to the two men and waited for them to say something.

"My boy? Where's my son?" She asked, holding the blanket tightly over her shaking, fragile form. "Did you find him?" She waited for a response.

"I'm sorry...Miss, but...we couldn't-" Tetsuya tried to explain.

"No..." She knew what was coming. "No, my baby..." She started crying audibly. "My baby boy! No!"

"I'm sorry..." Ichigo whispered lightly. "I'm so sorry..."

She clung to her oldest daughter and husband as the three younger children crowded them. The boy's mother sobbed in to her husband's chest and held what was left of her family.

"I'm so sorry..."

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**This took a n unusually long time to write. I guess it's cuz I kept putting it off, thinking it wouldn't be good or it would get complicated in the long run but I think it turned out pretty good for a starting chapter. Tell me how I did and if I should continue this story, REVIEW!**


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